


I've Really Done It This Time

by DesertSnowQueen



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Marichat, Platonic Marichat - Freeform, This was supposed to be shorter, adrien is still in denial about his feelings, and have less drama, apparently i am physically incapable of sticking to a lack of drama so..., my current contribution to marichat may
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 05:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14634759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertSnowQueen/pseuds/DesertSnowQueen
Summary: Chat tries to be supportive when he gets Marinette to talk about her crush. It goes about as well as you'd think.





	I've Really Done It This Time

Adrien Agreste has seen a lot of things since he became the masked superhero Chat Noir. He’s seen a lot of things since starting public school and making real friends. A lot of those things have overlapped in both the best and worst of ways. One thing he’d never thought he’d see was his cute friend tangled up in a huge banner and dangling from the railing of the second floor of their school looking more frustrated than nervous.

Yet that was exactly the sight that greeted him as he walked back into school from lunch that day. Marinette—class president, future fashion designer, and the cute girl that he visited on a fairly regular basis as Chat Noir—was wrapped up in fabric and ribbon and dangling several feet off the ground. The sight was made more shocking by half of their class standing around like this happened all the time, with Alya taking pictures and laughing at her best friend while Nino watched and seemed to be telling stories. Marinette huffed, blowing her bangs up out of her eyes as she tried to squirm herself free, at the same time Kim walked over to the railing.

“Don’t worry, DC! We’ll get you down!” Kim called.

“Kim, don’t you dare!” Marinette yelled back, surprising Adrien with the intensity of her glare. “Remember what happened last time? If you try to untie me from there, I’ll fall, and I’ll end up with a broken leg because I’m tied up too tightly to break my fall on my own.”

“Oh, come on, Marinette! I said I was sorry for that! I promise I won’t let go this time,” Kim said. “Why don’t you trust me?”

“I was in a cast for two months last time, Kim! Two months! I don’t have time to go through that again!” she yelled, and then started squirming again. “Just, let me get myself free. I think if I can find the right piece of fabric to pull on, the knot will untie itself.”

“If you say so. Need someone to break your fall?” Kim asked. Marinette huffed and nodded.

“Yeah, that would actually be great,” she admitted. Kim smirked and walked downstairs so he could be ready to catch her. Adrien walked over, but Marinette had managed to duck her head into the cocoon she was wrapped up in and disappear so she didn’t see him approach.

“You look like a classic Damsel-in-Distress,” Adrien called. He heard a muffled squeak as the banner-cocoon swung precariously, and started forward to catch it if it fell. By some stroke of luck, it stayed steady. “Need some help?” 

“I got it!” Marinette called back, and the cocoon pitched forward again.

“Are you sure?” Adrien asked skeptically.

“I am a damsel—” the cocoon swung backward, “I am in distress—” the cocoon swung forward, “I can handle this—” the cocoon stopped moving and he could hear the sound of fabric being pulled. Marinette’s head popped back out, her hair frizzy and her pigtails adorably messed up. “Have a nice day.”

“Marinette, you may be too close to this to realize—”

“Ah-ha!” Marinette cheered, effectively cutting him off. He could hear the sound of fabric being pulled again, followed by a very quiet, “oh no…”

The cocoon unraveled all at once, sending Marinette hurtling to the ground much faster than she had obviously anticipated. Adrien and Kim were the closest, and both boys darted out to break her fall. They managed to crash into each other just as Marinette crashed into them, so the three of them ended up in a tangled mess on the ground, covered in the banner Marinette had apparently made to celebrate the boys winning their basketball game the day before. They all groaned painfully while the rest of their classmates burst out laughing. Alya pulled Marinette up and Nino helped Adrien, who in turn helped Kim get back up.

“Oh my goodness, Adrien! Are you okay?” Marinette asked, her hands covering her mouth in shock.

“What about me? You landed on me too!” Kim asked in a scandalized tone before Adrien could say anything. Marinette turned to glare at him again, but with less intensity this time.

“You deserved it!” she retorted. “I wouldn’t even have been up there if it wasn’t for you!”

“What did I do?” Kim asked, with all the false innocence of someone who knows exactly what he did.

“You know what,” Marinette grumbled. Adrien looked on in confusion while Nino, Alya, and Kim all started laughing.

“I don’t know,” Adrien offered quietly, looking around with wide eyes. “What did he do?”

“He knows,” Marinette said, in a tone that meant Kim had better not say what he did.

“Come on, Marinette, it’s not like it’s the first time it happened,” Nino said. “It wasn’t Kim’s fault last time too, was it?”

“Actually, yeah it was,” Kim admitted, looking down at his feet in embarrassment. “I was teasing her about something and she lost her balance…and then I tried to help and she broke her leg…remember, Nino? I spent weeks trying to make up for it.”

Marinette hummed in an unimpressed but almost-amused way, which made Adrien smile. It was so similar to the way the reacted when Chat admitted he did something stupid on patrol that ended with him either in the Seine or stuck in a tree.

“At least you didn’t get hurt this time, Marinette,” Adrien offered. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Th-thanks, Adrien. Me, uh, me too,” Marinette stuttered. Adrien smiled.

“How about Kim and I finish hanging this banner so that doesn’t happen again?” he suggested, picking up the end of the banner and walking towards the stairs.

“That’s a good idea,” Alya said. “Next time you could get really hurt.”

“There won’t be a next time! I can do it!” Marinette argued. Nino and Kim burst out laughing.

“That’s what you said last time, Nettie,” Nino said, earning himself a glare.

“Look, Adrien and I will have it done in no time,” Kim said. “And don’t worry, I won’t say anything.”

“…Fine,” Marinette said, crossing her arms. Kim smiled and followed a slightly put-out Adrien up the stairs.

Chat would just have to find a way to get Marinette talking about what happened later.

.  
.  
.

That night, Chat Noir tapped on the glass of Marinette’s trap door to get her attention. She must have been expecting him, because she appeared only a few seconds later holding a plate with a croissant and some cookies that she passed up to him to hold while she joined him on the balcony. They settled into an easy, almost routine silence as they sat down that Chat was eager to break.

“So, Princess, did anything exciting happen at school today?” he asked, grateful for his model training that made him able to pretend to be innocent. Marinette groaned.

“It was awful, Chat,” she said with a huff. “I was hanging up a banner and fell from the second story balcony of the school. The only reason I didn’t get hurt was because I somehow managed to get myself tangled up in the end of the banner.”

“How did you fall?” he asked.

“I’m really clumsy on a regular basis,” Marinette started, “so that didn’t help anything. But a friend of mine started teasing me about my crush and I kind of spazzed and tripped over the end of the banner…it all happened really fast so I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but I guess I was pretty lucky that it did or I would have gotten really hurt.”

“Your crush?” Chat asked quietly, wracking his brain. They’d never talked about her crush before, only his crush on Ladybug… “It’s not the same guy you were heartbroken over when Andre became Glaciator, is it?”

“Yeah, Chat Noir, yeah it is,” she admitted. He frowned.

“You still like him? Even after whatever it was he did to hurt you?” he asked. She looked at him with an almost sad smile.

“You still love Ladybug, don’t you?” she asked.

“Well, yes. But Marinette, you deserve someone who won’t hurt you. Someone who is completely obsessed with you,” he said, then frowned at his wording. “In a non-creepy way, I mean.”

“You deserve that too, you know,” she said in a tone that indicated he was being hypocritical.

“I think she might be coming around,” he defended himself, then realized she was trying to switch the focus back to his love-life. “What do you even like about this guy, anyway?”

“Well, he’s honest, and he’s sweet,” she said, staring out at the Notre Dame to avoid making eye contact.

“Oh, please,” Chat said, rolling his eyes. No one could be good enough for his princess, no matter how honest or sweet she thought he was.

“He would never do anything to hurt me,” she said, turning to look at him. She saw his expression and sighed. “Not intentionally, anyway.”

“Marinette, he’s a guy!” he said, his tail twitching in mild frustration. “He’s hurt you already, intentionally or not! Why do you put up with that? How do you know he wouldn’t hurt you intentionally if given the chance?”

“I don’t know, Chat. I put up with it because I love him. I can’t just turn that off!” she said, her frustration matching his. “But I do know he would never intentionally hurt me, because I thought he was trying to hurt me when we first met. There was this incident on his first day of school…I chewed him out for something he didn’t even do. He apologized to me for what happened, even though I was the one that overreacted. He proved he wasn’t the kind of guy that would deliberately hurt someone, and actually went out of his way to be kind to me. Chat, I’ve made an absolute mess of myself in front of him and I stumble over my words like an idiot and he’s always patient and kind and smiles and he actually somehow manages to figure out what I meant to say when I’m not always sure what I meant to say.”

“Who is he?” he asked. He tried to think of people who he’d seen interacting with Marinette like that, but none of them stood out.

“I don’t know if I should tell you that,” Marinette said, her voice taking on a teasing note as she raised an eyebrow at him. “I wouldn’t want to risk you hunting him down because you don’t think he deserves me.”

“Well, a knight has to protect his princess,” he said, making her laugh. “At least tell me how you know him. Is he in your class?”

“Yeah, yeah he is,” she said, turning away from him again.

“Then why haven’t you told him how you feel?” he asked. He still didn’t know who she was talking about, but maybe he could get it out of Nino later. Nino had known Marinette long enough that if there was someone else that she had gotten upset with when they first met, he would know about it.

“I can’t,” she said quietly, a world of emotion in those two words.

“I thought you said you knew he wouldn’t hurt you intentionally. What are you afraid of?” he asked her. She sighed.

“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like me back. He and I are good friends, but that’s all we are. If I were to tell him how I feel…it’s not really his fault that he doesn’t like me back, you know? As much as I want him to love me…Besides, like I said, I’m an absolute mess around him. I’ve tried to ask him out before. I even left an embarrassing voicemail when I tried to ask him out one time. I just, can’t make the words work when I need them to,” she said.

“I wish I knew how to help you with that…” he said. He felt helpless. He had been able to tell Ladybug that he loved her, and she had said there was someone else. Which he understood. And it hurt, but he had understood and she was his best friend which meant she was still in his life, and he wanted to think she had seemed more open or affectionate recently. He just didn’t want Marinette to have to hurt like that.

“It’s okay, kitty. Not even heroes can fix everything,” she said, smiling at him.

“I suppose. Hey, promise me one thing?” he asked, waiting for her to nod before continuing. “If you do decide to tell him, let me know in advance? I want to be able to keep an eye on you just in case he does hurt you, so that you can have someone to talk to about it. I really don’t want to have to fight my Princess when I should be fighting the jerk that was too blind to notice how amazing she is.”

“Sure, kitty. I promise,” she said fondly, reaching over and flicking his bell. He grinned at her.

“Can you at least tell me who your crush isn’t?” he asked a moment later, causing her to groan. “What if I guess who he is? Will you tell me then? Has he been akumatized? Wait, no. Everyone in your class has been akumatized…”

“Not everyone,” she said quietly, interrupting him.

“Right! You haven’t yet! We need to make sure that doesn’t happen, which is why I think I should know who this guy is, so I can know who to watch out for,” he said, proud of his logic. She rolled her eyes.

“Adrien Agreste hasn’t been akumatized either,” she pointed out. He stiffened slightly.

“Right. Well, hopefully neither of you will ever be akumatized, because that would be bad,” he said awkwardly. “Seriously though! Who is he? You know about my crush!”

“Most of Paris knows about your crush,” she said, grabbing another cookie from the mostly forgotten plate.

“That is besides the point. I actually get to talk to you about her. I want to do the same for you! I thought we were friends!” he said. He was surprised to see she almost looked hurt.

“We are friends, Chat. Don’t tell Alya but, I don’t think I could choose between you and her if someone asked me who my best friend was,” she admitted.

“Then why won’t you tell me?” he asked. “Don’t best friends tell each other these things?”

“It’s embarrassing,” she said.

“I won’t tease you, you know,” he said. “Is it Kim?”

“What? No! Kim is the one that was teasing me about my crush, remember? I fell of the second floor of the school again,” she said.

“Again?” he asked. Until that moment he had forgotten Kim and Nino saying it had happened before. “What happened the first time?”

“Kim was just picking on me. I was trying to hang up decorations for a school event, including a banner, and he was pretending to be helpful but was spending more time teasing me about, something. I don’t remember what it was, it was a few years ago now. I think he was teasing me about being short and asking if I could actually reach the post I was tying the banner to. He didn’t actually mean it, and we were both laughing and he was trying to help me, but because he had teased me I wanted to prove I could do it on my own…so I wrapped the banner around myself and tried to climb up onto the railing while he was still poking fun at me, and I kind of lost my balance and fell. The banner caught me, and then Kim tried to pull me back up but that pulled the banner loose and I fell again, and ended up breaking my leg,” she explained. “He felt really bad about it. I made him make it up to me by giving me piggy-back rides between classes and to and from school so I wouldn’t have to use my crutches during the day.”

“Please tell me there are pictures from that,” Chat said, barely containing his laughter. Marinette laughed and nodded.

“My mom has some in a photo album somewhere, and Nino might still have some on his phone. I think I have a couple on my computer but I don’t think I can find them right now. I’ll look before the next time you come,” she promised. He smiled.

“So, we've established that Kim is not your crush…then who is it?” he asked. She sighed.

“Will you stop?” she whined, pouting when he laughed at her. “Curiosity and cats, kitty.”

“I think the satisfaction would be worth it,” he said smugly. “Please? I promise to be nice about it. I won’t even go after him unless you tell me it’s okay.”

“If it will get you to stop asking, then fine,” she conceded. Chat pumped a fist in the air victoriously. “You really are a dork.”

“Yes, yes, you’ve told me many times,” he said, waving her off. “So, what’s his name?”

“Adrien Agreste,” she said. She kept her gaze locked on a star above them, which meant she didn’t notice Chat freeze, his smile still on his face but his eyes empty.

He felt like his brain had shut down. Every time he tried to think, a little error message popped up and he was drowning in a sea of blue. How had he never noticed…?

“Huh,” he said after a moment, when his brain decided to cooperate. “I honestly did not see that coming.”

“You don’t think I have a chance,” she said softly.

“I didn’t say that! I just said I wasn’t expecting that. Two very different things, Princess,” he said, not quite sure what he was trying to say.

“Then what do you think? Should I tell him? Is it worth it? Or should I try to let him go?” she asked. She looked at him as if his opinion was the most important thing in the world to her, which made him feel very, very, very guilty.

“Will letting him go keep you from falling off of the second floor of your school?” he asked in response. She laughed a little.

“Probably not. At least not directly,” she said.

“Do you, do you want to let him go?” he asked, trying to pretend like her answer didn’t matter. He tried to tell him it shouldn’t matter, he was in love with Ladybug, and he should actually be hoping that Marinette would move on so he didn’t have to be the reason she was hurting anymore…why did he find that it mattered?

“You know how they say you never really get over your first love?” she asked instead. He nodded, not quite following her train of thought. “Well, he’s mine. I think that even if I did let him go, I wouldn’t be able to fully move on. Part of me would always care.”

Chat pulled her into a tight hug, nuzzling into her neck. She was surprised but didn’t fight him, and instead reached up and ran her fingers through his hair until he started purring.

“He doesn’t deserve you,” he mumbled. She laughed humorlessly.

“Oh kitty,” she said softly, “if that’s true, then Ladybug doesn’t deserve you. You’re too good to her, even if you don’t realize it.”

“I feel like I’m not allowed to argue with you right now,” he said.

“Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’ with an air of finality.

“Thought so. Are you going to tell him?” he asked.

“If and when I do, I’ll tell you first. I’ll probably need someone to practice with,” she joked. He laughed, mostly because he knew she expected him to.

“I look forward to that day,” he said without thinking, before dragging himself away from her. “For now, I should get going. Get some sleep, Princess.”

“I will. Be safe, Chat,” she said waving him off.

When he got home, he detransformed and flopped on his bed, letting out a pitiful whine.

“I’ve really done it this time, haven’t I, Plagg?”

His kwami just shook his head and laughed.


End file.
